How long have you lived in San Francisco?

Forums: English, Esl, Grammar
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A friend of mine who had stayed in San Francisco to study English came back to Korea last week,
and almost all my buddies got together to celebrate her come back.

One of my buddies who enjoys speaking in English asked her,
"So, how long have you lived in San Francisco?"

Upon hearing that, another buddy said,

"Well, in this case, I don't think the sentence you used might sound awkward.
The form 'have p.p.' suggests that an event took place in the past,
and that the event is still related with the present.

Obviously she stayed in S.F. in the past, but she's not staying in San Francisco any more. She's now here in Korea.
So, I assume that the question 'How long have you lived in S.F?' does not really make sense.'
Native speakers would find it rather inappropriate under that circumstance.

Well, I wonder what native speakers would think about his remark.
Did he correctly point out a mistake?

I'm dying to know the answer.
Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 727 • Replies: 19

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View best answer, chosen by SMickey

@SMickey,

Quote:

So, I assume that the question 'How long have you lived in S.F?' does not really make sense.'

Correct sort of, native speakers would think either that the speaker did not know that the subject no longer lives in SF, or that they are lying.

The correct question would be " how long did you live in SF?" though " How long were you in SF?" would be more common.

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@SMickey,

The correct English phrase more than likely should be:

"How long did you STAY in San Francisco."

Using 'lived' would imply taking residence. That is not what English speakers would have said.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Quote:

Using 'lived' would imply taking residence.

Home is where the heart is, which is why many people would avoid that hornets nest of trying to make an assumption of whether this was a visit or a residence by asking " how long were you in SF?"....which requires no evaluation of the matter.

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To me it would depend on how long she was there studying. I might be that she lived there six months, for example. I once had laboratory training in the San Diego area for six months, and I was definitely living there for that time, rented a cottage, worked five days a week.

Another way I'd phrase the question is: "how long had you lived in San Francisco", using had instead of have.

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@ossobuco,

Quote:

To me it would depend on how long she was there studying

If the questioner knew that then they would not be asking the question.

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@hawkeye10,

My opinion is that she was likely living there for some time, language study taking most of us a fair amount of time, though I know there are intensive courses out there. I should have addressed that to Ragman, as he is the one who wondered about that.

True, none of us knows the time spent. I still like the use of 'had'.

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@ossobuco,

I agree with your choice of the word 'had' (over 'have').
Thus, it is acceptable to say: "So, how long had you lived in San Francisco?"
or
"So, how long had you stayed in San Francisco?"

To add another acceptable alternative, I'd say:
"So, how long was your stay in San Francisco?"

FYI, the use of 'stay' in this instance is a noun.

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@Ragman,

Quote:

""So, how long was your stay in San Francisco?"

Yes, but common people at least would not talk like that, this phrasing sounds close to archaic to my ear.

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@ossobuco,

Quote:

My opinion is that she was likely living there for some time,

Likely, but most of us tend to try to avoid phrasing questions that are based upon assumptions with people we dont know very well, in order to avoid uncomfortable results ("How far along are you?", "I am not pregnant!" )

Certainly this applies to most anyone who does not know the person well enough to know how long they were in SF.

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@Ragman,

agree..

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@hawkeye10,

I guess I'm not common. It's easily possible I would say that.

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@hawkeye10,

Okay. The verb 'be' is better than the verb 'live' here. I see.
Thank you.

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@SMickey,

SMickey wrote:

and almost all my buddies got together to celebrate her come back.

return is the word to use in this context - not come back

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@SMickey,

SMickey wrote:

A friend of mine who had stayed in San Francisco to study English came back to Korea last week,

A friend of mine who went to San Francisco to study English

or

A friend of mine who moved/had moved to San Francisco to study English

are better options than "stayed in"

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@SMickey,

SMickey wrote:

One of my buddies who enjoys speaking in English asked her,

one of my buddies who enjoys speaking English asked her

1 Reply

But did she leave her heart?

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@George,

Remember MarleyFrancesmillionsandmillions from Abuzz? When Set and I visited her in Maine we saw the Grammy her father won for arranging that Smile

It was cool.

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@ehBeth,

Oh my word.

I had no idea 'come back' and 'return' might be different.
It's hard to tell the difference in a nutshell, isn't it?

I do need to look into it. Thank you.

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@ehBeth,

So, 'speak English' is correct, and 'speak in English' isn't.
I see. I'll memorize this and the one above.
I'm so grateful for you to correct my mistakes.
Thank you a lot.

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How long have you lived in San Francisco?

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